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Jul. 15, 2021 02:23PM EST
Lebanese president defies U.S. and French pressure, rejects new government
Lebanese President Michel Aoun rejected Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri's proposal for a new government, prompting Hariri's resignation and deepening the country's political crisis.
Why it matters: Lebanon's political stalemate is contributing to the country's economic collapse, and caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has been pleading for international help to avert an imminent “social explosion." But key international players say they'll withhold aid without a new government and economic and political reforms.
Driving the news: Hours before Aoun rejected Hariri's proposal, Secretary of State Tony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had sent a joint message to the Lebanese president stressing the need to form a new government as soon as possible.
- The message was conveyed by the U.S. and French ambassadors in Beirut on Thursday, a day after Blinken and Le Drian met in Washington and agreed to push for a new, reform-minded government in Beirut.
- Blinken and Le Drian also discussed possible sanctions against Lebanese politicians involved in corruption or in preventing the formation of a government.
- “We will coordinate the measures of French and American pressure against those responsible for this impasse," Le Drian said.
The latest: After Aoun rejected his proposed technocratic cabinet — which came after 8 months of negotiations — Hariri said it would be "impossible" to reach a deal with the president.
- "May God help Lebanon," he said.
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Aug. 31, 2021 11:29AM EST
For the first time since March 2020, nearly all American renters can now be evicted
Nearly all American renters can now be evicted, for the first time since March 2020 — and a white-hot housing market is making eviction much more attractive for landlords.
Why it matters: There's an enormous pool of federal money available to protect renters who have fallen behind. But it's not going to stop hundreds of thousands of households from being evicted.
The big picture: Pre-pandemic, evictions tended to run at a rate of about 1 million per year. Since the pandemic hit, various federal and state moratoriums have brought that number down sharply, by about 60%.
Driving the news: The federal ban on evictions is no longer in effect, thanks to the Supreme Court, and while a handful of state eviction bans remain, nearly all of those will be gone by the end of September.
The other side: The government has earmarked $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance (ERA), which should be more than enough to cover existing arrears. The problem is that money isn't going to renters.
- It's distributed by the states, which are moving very slowly — New York State, for instance, has managed to spend less than 1.5% of its federal ERA funds.
By the numbers: According to the Census Bureau, 4.7 million American adults live in households "where eviction or foreclosure in the next two months is either very likely or somewhat likely."
- If they're evicted, those families are much less likely to be able to find and keep steady work, and much more likely to end up living in crowded conditions conducive to the spread of COVID-19.
- Goldman Sachs estimates that 750,000 households are likely to be evicted "in the fall and winter months."
The bottom line: The Supreme Court ruling is unlikely to unleash an immediate and massive backlog of evictions — such things wend their way through the courts slowly at the best of times, and the courts are understandably sympathetic to renters during a pandemic. But the number of evictions is still going to rise sharply over the coming months.
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Dec. 10, 2024 10:12AM EST
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